JAMES CLARKE WHITE. 875 



these no one man, even fifty years ago could do justice. He chose 

 dermatology, and he was appointed professor in '71, and cut himself 

 off from all other practice. It required great courage in those days 

 to specialize in dermatology; indeed, in anything except ophthalmol- 

 ogy. But courage is a quality of which Dr. White had, at least, his 

 share, and his integrity of character was so well known that all under- 

 stood there was no sham in his adoption of a specialty. It seems a 

 pity that so many present day specialists start as such, instead of 

 growing into specialism as did White. Perhaps it is unavoidable, so 

 intensively and extensively has knowledge opened up, above all in 

 the last quarter of a century. The body is one, although its parts 

 are many. General practice may be compared with the low power of 

 the microscope. Dr. Owen Wister, of Philadelphia, remarked to 

 the writer many years ago that "it takes a mighty big man to be a 

 specialist." Dr. White was not what his great teacher, Hebra, used 

 to call a "specialist by the grace of God." His specialism was based 

 on a wide, general experience. 



For a brief time he had a ward for skin cases at the Hospital, and 

 toward the latter part of his life, a few beds for such cases. He built 

 up a large out-patient clinic, frequented by many attracted by his 

 reputation rather than that of the Hospital. 



As a teacher, he was clear, practical, concise, convincing. 



In the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School he rendered great 

 service as a protagonist in the reform of Medical education in which 

 Harvard led the van. It was not only in the Faculty that Dr. White 

 pleaded the cause of improvement in medical education. It was the 

 subject of his address opening the winter course of lectures in 1870, 

 and again in his anniversary oration before the Massachusetts Medical 

 Society, 1878. 



He was one of the founders of the Boston Society of Natural History, 

 serving as its curator of comparative anatomy for ten years. He was 

 an original member and first President of the American Dermatological 

 Association, and a very constant attendant and active participant in 

 its meetings. He was again its President twenty years later. Proof 

 of the recognition of his services and attainments is found in the fact 

 that he was President of the International Dermatological Congress 

 held in New York in 1907. In the Massachusetts Medical Society 

 he was Anniversary Chairman, Orator, and President. He was for 

 some years Editor of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. His 

 contributions to literature were mainly papers, especially on subjects 

 related to diseases of the skin. 



